It’s been a while, but here I am with a completed first draft of a new novel. Currently, it has the working title of ‘The Journeyman ’ and runs to 135,000 words.
I also have a working logline:
A blacksmith’s apprentice falls in love with another man during the trials of Oscar Wilde while forging a mysterious lockbox.
That is the basic hook, which gives nothing away, but it’s also rather clumsy, and sounds like the apprentice is doing his work in the Central Criminal Court while the trials are taking place. In fact, he lives and works in a small, rural village in Kent, some 60 miles away, and is unaware of the trials and scandal taking place in London. So, I’m still working on that while I continue to work on the manuscript.
Oscar Wilde was in court three times between April 3rd and May 25th, 1895, but the scandal began earlier that year. On February 28th, 1895, the Marquess of Queensberry left an insulting card at Wilde’s club addressed to “Oscar Wilde, posing as a sodomite.” That led to Wilde suing for criminal libel at the Old Bailey. However, facing devastating cross-examination by Edward Carson regarding his writings and relationships with young men, Wilde withdrew the suit, and Queensberry was acquitted. Immediately after, authorities issued a warrant for Wilde’s arrest. The situation for Wilde worsened from then on.
Joe Webster, a 20-year-old blacksmith’s apprentice, is approaching the end of his indenture and hoping to become a Journeyman so he can go ‘tramping’ to find a new job and a better life.
Two things cause upset in his world; a commission to make an unusual iron chest, and a man called Harvey Cade.
And then, there is a death and an inquest…
Wilde is the far-away background to the story, and not what the story is about. I chose the spring of 1895 because it follows on in the timeline from the end of the Delamere Files, although this story has nothing to do with the London characters or stories of the Clearwater, Larkspur, and Delamere mysteries, and is not like those stories at all. There is a mystery, but not one of my usual ‘improbable but possible’ mysteries, and the mystery is not at the heart of ‘The Journeyman.’ The heart of it is about two men falling in love, and a lot of it is to do with village life.
As they say, all will be revealed in time.
For now, I just wanted to keep you informed and let you know I’ve not dropped off the end of the world, and am beavering away in the background. I have some other work to catch up on this week, but after that, I shall be back to the draft and the editing work, improving the MS and thinking of covers and layout. If I can get ahead, I should have this release ready for you sometime in October, so keep an eye on my blog here and on my social media pages. You can find the links in the right-hand sidebar. I will keep you informed about the journey of Journeyman Joe (another possible title).
Promos
Meanwhile, the publicity work continues, and that’s the side of things I’m not very good at. Too busy writing to think about it all, and with no money to pay even a reputable company to do it for me. The best I can do for now is rely on these free promo-shares from BookFunnel, and here’s one that you might like to explore.
LGBTQ+ Books
Genres: Romance / LGBT. The books in this promo have to be romance, but with no erotica, and then it says there must be some heat – so, I assume, they will be low-level-heat romances. I have my three series starters in there, because they are romance/mystery with a little heat.
